Dare to Say, Dare to Do: The Strongman in Business in 1990s Cambodia

The rise of international election monitoring and the strengthening of an international human rights regime in the 1990s have aimed at promoting peaceful democratization in post-conflict situations under international auspices. In Cambodia, the dual threats of electoral competition and international scrutiny have altered but not eradicated the practice of violence for political ends. The emergence of a free market has permitted the commodification of violence and its private sale beyond the spotlight of international attention in the decentralized and relatively depoliticized spheres of the economy, organized crime, and intimate relations. Continuing fear of violence institutes a politics of protection that has elevated individual “strongmen” at the expense of the development both of the political party as a mobilizer of opinion, and of the political will to strengthen independent institutions of law and order.